Texas' Nueces County Hosts More than $2 Billion in Planned Third-Quarter Project Kickoffs

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Of the 254 counties in Texas, Nueces County stands head and shoulders above most when it comes to the value of projects with potential kickoffs in third-quarter 2019. Industrial Info is tracking more than $2 billion in projects that are planned to start construction during the next three months in the Gulf Coast county, which includes Corpus Christi and its oil & gas and petrochemicals activity.

Click on the image at right for a graph showing Nueces County third-quarter project kickoff activity by industry.

The project with the largest price tag in Nueces County also happens to be the largest one for all of Texas in this time period: Lone Star Ports LLC's $1 billion Corpus Christi Crude Oil Export Terminal.

In March, the Port of Corpus Christi Commission approved a 50-year lease agreement with Lone Star Ports, a joint venture between the Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) (Washington, D.C.) and the Berry Group (Wichita, Kansas), for about 200 acres on Harbor Island to develop the petroleum export terminal.

The project developers say the facility will be the U.S.' first onshore terminal capable of fully loading Suezmax vessels (those ships that can fit through the Suez Canal and carry up to 1 million barrels of oil) and nearly fully loading Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), which have the ability to carry 2 million barrels of crude. The Corpus Christi Ship Channel is being deepened to 56 feet from the channel entrance to Harbor Island, and a planned depth of 54 feet throughout the rest of the harbor, to be able to accommodate larger vessels.

The oil terminal project includes demolishing existing docks at Harbor Island that are no longer in use, constructing two new docks, and a tank farm with a storage capacity of 4 million barrels and a loading capacity of 1.4 million BBL/d. The terminal will be connected to crude pipelines owned by Hilcorp Energy Company's (Houston, Texas) Harvest Midstream Pipeline, and to EPIC Midstream Holdings LPs' (San Antonio, Texas) EPIC pipeline, which will carry crude oil from the Permian and Eagle Ford basins. Completion is planned for fourth-quarter 2020. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Corpus Christi is expected to become the U.S.' top crude oil export hub over the next decade, according to Wood Mackenzie's (Edinburgh, U.K.) North America Crude Markets Service. Crude oil production volumes in the Lower 48 states are expected to rise by 4 million BBL/d over the next five years. More than 2 million BBL/d of pipeline capacity between the Permian Basin and Corpus Christi is under construction and is due to come online within the next eight to 12 months, according to the research and consultancy firm. The Corpus Christi region is expected to account for 56% of U.S. crude shipments abroad.

Another large planned third-quarter kickoff in Nueces County is for Corpus Christi Polymers' 2.6 billion-pound-per-year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit addition in Corpus Christi. Construction began in 2014, but stalled when its owner, M&G Chemicals SA (Luxembourg), declared bankruptcy. The project was subsequently acquired by Corpus Christi Polymers, a joint venture between Indorama Corporation (Jakarta, Indonesia), Alpek S.A.B. de C.V. (Mexico City) and Far Eastern Group (Taipei, Taiwan). For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at https://www.industrialinfo.com.